INEC Releases Guidelines For The Screening Of Presidential, Governorship And Assembly Candidates

In preparation for the National Assembly and States' Assembly elections expected to hold February 14 2015, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will commence the verification of the credentials submitted by the political parties on behalf of their perspective candidates. In the same manner, the verification exercise for presidential candidates of the ten political parties with presidential candidates for the February 14 2015
election is expected to hold between January 16 and 18 next year. INEC, it was gathered, would be using the amended 1999 constitution and the Electoral Act (2010 as amended) as their guide for the screening and verification of the documentations presented by the various candidates of the political parties. The screening and verification exercise is not limited to the National Assembly as the exercise would be extended to the State Assembly candidates in the 36 states. As part of this, INEC would set up a committee for the verification of legislative houses candidates (national/state assembly verification/clearance committee) and the members of these committees would be be visiting the states to verify the personal particulars of the candidates between January 4 and 14, 2015. The presidential and governorship verification as well
as clearance committee will conduct the verification in the commission's headquarters, Abuja, from January 16 and 18, 2015. As a penalty for candidates with false credentials, INEC is threatening a fine of N500, 000 on parties that present candidates with false information.
The guidelines for the screening and verification exercise are contained in INEC website Sunday.